President Donald Trump will not commute the 12-year federal prison sentence imposed on former city of Atlanta executive Mitzi Bickers after she was found guilty of taking millions of dollars in bribes from city contractors.
Bickers, 59, is currently serving her sentence in a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She was convicted in 2022 on multiple charges, accused of operating a cash-for-contracts scheme while working under former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
A pastor and community leader, Bickers was one of more than 5,000 people who sought clemency in 2024, records from the U.S. Department of Justice show. Her request for commutation of sentence was denied July 10, alongside legions of others.
Bickers’ criminal defense attorney and representatives of the White House did not respond Monday to questions about the case.
This month, Trump has granted 17 pardons, all in cases outside Georgia. He has denied many more clemency petitions, including one from one of Bickers’ co-defendants.
Bickers is one of almost a dozen former Atlanta officials and contractors sentenced to prison in a sprawling City Hall corruption investigation that included pay-for-play contracting. Hers is the longest prison sentence.
Jim Beard, the city’s former finance chief, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to federal program theft and obstructing IRS laws. He also asked for clemency in 2024, which Trump denied July 10. Beard’s attorneys did not comment Monday.
Beard, 62, is serving his sentence in Miami and is scheduled to be released next month, records show.
Last year, Trump pardoned former Atlanta multimillionaires and reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley after they were found guilty of evading taxes and defrauding community banks out of $36 million.
Atlanta’s director of human services between 2010 and 2013, Bickers pocketed about $3 million in bribes from businessmen she helped to secure city contracts worth around $17 million, prosecutors said. She was appointed by Reed in exchange for helping him win election.
A federal jury in Atlanta found Bickers guilty of nine felony counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and wire fraud. She was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison, after which prosecutors sought to dismiss the wire fraud charges under updated guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last year, Bickers was resentenced to 12 years in prison, following the denial of her request for a new trial.
“I didn’t make all the right decisions,” Bickers said during her resentencing hearing. “I don’t want anyone to think that I’m not accepting full responsibility for my own actions.”
At the time, Bickers’ attorneys said she had changed and was a model inmate. Bickers told the judge that her incarceration up until that point had been life-changing and that she’d like to make a difference once released by helping inmates with their mental health and prison staff with professional development.
Prosecutor Nathan Kitchens said during the hearing that Bickers’ lies and deceit had cast a shadow over hundreds of hardworking and honest city employees.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones declined to reduce the $2.9 million in restitution that Bickers was ordered to pay.
Bickers’ release date is currently scheduled for March 2032, records show.
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